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A dispassionate and large-hearted crow. The residence of this crow was a Kalpavṛkṣa standing on a beautiful peak surrounded by luxuriant vegetation in the north-eastern corner of Mahāmeru. There were numerous bird-nests on the southern branch of that Kalpavṛkṣa. In one of them lived this centuries-old bird.

Once when the sage Vasiṣṭha went to Devaloka, he happened to hear about this crow. He went to see Bhuśuṇḍa in its nest. The crow recognised Vasiṣṭha at once. They exchanged greetings. The sage opened the conversation as follows:—"Oh, King of birds! when were you born? How did you become a great soul? How old are you? Have you recollections of the past? Who was the prophet who suggested this residence for you?"

The bird calmly replied as follows:—"If you are interested in hearing my past history I shall tell you. Lord Śaṅkara the Almighty lives in this world. He has numerous attendant spirits. Besides these spirits who have hoofs on their head, hands in the hoofs, teeth in the hands and stomach in the face, and who have faces resembling those of monkeys, camels, and elephants, he has also hordes of Mātṛs in his retinue. The Mātṛs, attended by spirits continue their dance in the presence of the Lord. Mountain peaks, the sky, the different worlds, deep pits, cremation grounds, etc. are their haunts. Chief among these Mātṛs are eight sisters named, Jayā, Vijayā, Jayantī, Aparāhitā, Siddhā, Raktā, Alambuṣā and Ulpalā. They have other followers also. Alambuṣā’s vehicle is the crow named Caṇḍa. All these Mātṛs assembled together on one occasion to celebrate a festival in the sky. There was a display of many kinds of entertainments at that time. Disputations in spiritual matters, music, dancing, drinking and other forms of hilarious activities were freely indulged in. In another part of the sky, their vehicles were also enjoying themselves with similar celebrations of drinking, dancing, and merry-making. The swans who were the vehicles of Brāhmīdevī were dancing in one place, intoxicated by drink. Caṇḍa, the crow, who was Alambuṣā’s vehicle, also joined their company. Completely absorbed in their delirious raptures, the intoxicated swans indulged so freely in their amorous pleasures with Caṇḍa that they became pregnant. At last when the merry-makings ended and all of them dispersed, the swans became aware of their plight and informed Brāhmī about it. The gracious goddess (Brāhmī) told them that in their present state they were unable to discharge their duties in drawing her chariot and so they were allowed to go and enjoy themselves wherever they liked. After this she entered into a trance. The swans in the fullness of time, gave birth to twentyone sons. We, the twentyone brothers, are those children. We and our mothers went to Brāhmīdevī and offered worship to her for a long time. As a result, the Devī woke up from her trance and pleased with us, gave us her blessing. After that, we went to our father (Caṇḍa) and off red our devoted services to him and prostrated before him and Alambuṣādevī. They blessed us. We asked our father to suggest a most suitable place for a secluded life. This Kalpa Vṛkṣa is the secluded place recommended by him. We paid obeisance to our father and Alambuṣādevī and came to settle down here. Many ages have passed since then. Now your visit and holy presence here, have liberated me from all worldly bonds and ennobled my life. My twenty brothers lived for many Kalpas and yugas at the end of which, convinced of the meaninglessness of worldly life, renounced their bodies and attained Śivaloka.

On hearing this, Vasiṣṭha asked Bhuśuṇḍa to tell him more about his past life. Bhuśuṇḍa resumed his story:—"Long long ago, the whole earth was full of big rocks, without trees, forests or mountains. After a great flood the surface of the earth was covered with ashes. In one caturyuga (a period equal to the length of the four yugas, Kṛta, tretā, dvāpara and Kali) the earth was filled with forest trees and in another Caturyuga, mountain ranges appeared. I have seen an age in which Brāhmaṇas were drunkards, Śūdras were virtuous and women of noble families committed adultery. You have now been born in the eightieth "Janma" as the son of Brahmā. You were born once from the sky, at another time from water, then from the mountain and again from fire. I can remember this earth sinking into the ocean five times and Lord Viṣṇu taking the form of a tortoise, lifting it up, above the water. I have seen the ocean of milk being churned twelve times. I know that Hiraṇyākṣa had taken the earth three times to Pātāla (underworld). The Lord has incarnated six times as Bhārgava Rāma. Incarnation of Buddha has taken place in six Kaliyugas. Tripuradahana (burning of the Tripurāsuras) has taken place thirty times. Dakṣa yāga was broken up twice. Lord Śiva has slain ten Indras. He fought seven times with Śrī Kṛṣṇa for the sake of Bāṇa. I also remember another epic entitled "Rāmāyaṇa", containing one lakh of verses and dealing with metaphysical problems. I have seen the customs of Kṛtayuga being followed in Kaliyuga and the customs of Kaliyuga being followed in Kṛtayuga."

Having heard the whole story, Vasiṣṭha gave his blessing to Bhuśuṇḍa and left the place. (Jñāna Vāsiṣṭha, Bhu uṇḍopākhyāna).

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Alambuṣā (अलम्बुषा):—One of the sixty-eight Rasauṣadhi, very powerful drugs known to be useful in alchemical processes related to mercury (rasa), according to Rasaprakāśa-sudhākara (chapter 9).

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syncro said:

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I was trying to compose a poem yesterday (oh no)  - I saw a quote of the experience of the "I" being different than the "I thought" or mind, and the breeze in the trees and the songbirds were singing of it. Years ago after reading of the birds of the forest helping Ram, there are times that spirit in the trees is evident, that everything sings that.

Every breath, movement, everything is in that, and that is meant by living scripture.

I was looking for a translation of "Mama Hridayakanja Nivaasa Kuru Kaamaadi Khaladalaganjanam" and couldn't but AI ventured, "Reside in the lotus of my heart, O destroyer of desire and ignorance, like the sun dispels darkness."

Wait, dark, or light? Both. Not like darkness opposing light, you know what I mean.

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Quotes about Black Essence/Aspect

Beginning to Understand the Relationship Between Peace, Stillness and Annihilation

It is true that in your first encounters with it, the Black Essence arises mostly as peace, but when you further investigate this peace, you might recognize that the peacefulness is related to an exquisite, calm stillness. When you experience this stillness, you may think of it as peacefulness, but the concept of peacefulness doesn’t exactly capture the flavor of the experience. Stillness as the direct inner experience of the Black Essence is slightly, subtly different from peacefulness. And when you contemplate the stillness and explore it, you might find out that stillness is not static. This is difficult for the mind to grasp. Usually you think that stillness means stillness—nothing moving—which your mind understands as static, so that is generally how it is remembered when the experience of stillness is stored in your mind. Now when Black returns and you bring back the remembered experience, which has become a concept of stillness, you don’t recognize that stillness has a dynamic effect; you think of it as static and unchanging. In actuality, there is nothing static about the Black Essence. The dynamic effect—which is felt at the moment stillness comes in contact with the mind—is to erase the mind. It destroys its content, annihilates it, and makes the mind still like itself. When you recognize this annihilating action of the Black Essence, you can begin to understand the relationship between peace, stillness, and annihilation. And if you stay open, without allowing the concepts of annihilation, stillness, or peacefulness to limit your contact with what you are experiencing, you might recognize that the Black Essence is also powerful, for it can quiet down the agitation of the mind easily and effortlessly. This might allow the Black Essence to arise as power, and you can then recognize that Black is the essence of power.

Manifestations of the Black Essence

Now we have gone from peace to power, though we wouldn’t initially have seen any connection between them. If we had remained bound to the memory of our original experience of Black as peace—filed it away in our computer as a bit of final knowledge and closed our mind to further possibilities—we might never have arrived at real power. But even power is not necessarily the end, because if you stay with your experience in an attitude of dynamic openness, the Black Essence can also manifest as the essence of magic and the essence of beauty. And if you continue to be open and curious, you might see, “Oh, it is some kind of unfathomable mystery.” And so it goes, as the unfoldment of the richness of Being continues endlessly. This doesn’t mean that the Black Essence is not truly peace, it doesn’t mean it’s not true stillness or true power. It is all of these, but we need to remember that the essence of Being cannot be finally determined—this is what I call the inexhaustible mystery of Being. You can know it and know it and know it and know it, but you can never exhaust it. This is true about any manifestation of Being—in fact, about anything in life, anything you experience. You can know the experience precisely, but this precise knowledge is never final. It is this ultimate mystery that allows the unknowingness to continue being there, for regardless of how much we know, we still don’t know. There is always unknowingness.

The Power of Our Being is an Annihilating Force which Annihilates Ego Attitudes and Positions by Revealing that they Don’t Truly Exist

Power is one of the ways of experiencing the Black Essence. The Black Essence has two sides—the peaceful side and the wrathful side. The peaceful side is the stillness, mystery, and magic—qualities of the night. “Wrathful” is used here in the sense of the Tibetan tradition of being fierce and annihilating in the service of truth. The wrathful side is the quality of power . . . . . . . But what actually is the power of Being? The power of Being is just an active manifestation of peace, a dynamic application of stillness. It is not a pushing, it is not a destructiveness. When peace touches the soul, it simply stills it. All of her activities, agitation, and reactions simply dissolve the moment the presence of stillness touches them. They are annihilated. That is the power of stillness, the Peace aspect of Essence. So the power of our Being is an annihilating force, which annihilates ego attitudes and positions by revealing that they don’t truly exist. The power of Peace takes everything back to its original source, which is total stillness. All of the qualities of Essence color the field of the soul in their own likeness when they touch it. In fact, the soul transforms into the very quality that touches her. So when the Black Essence touches the manifestations of the soul, it brings them back to its own nature, which is peacefulness, and the Peace of true nature is a sense of stillness in which nothing stirs. It is total stillness, which, when precisely understood, turns out to be one hundred percent annihilation. It is an intense sensitivity, but the sensitivity has become so intense that it is absolute, for absolutely nothing stirs.

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Shankara practices
ChatGPT

Shankara, also known as Adi Shankaracharya, was a revered Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy. He emphasized the concept of ultimate reality (Brahman) being without any form and distinctions. While he is best known for his philosophical teachings, he also established certain practices and rituals that are followed by his followers. Some of the key practices associated with Shankara's tradition include:

**1. ** Jnana Yoga:

    Study of Scriptures: Followers are encouraged to study the Vedas, Upanishads, and other scriptures to gain knowledge and understanding of the ultimate truth.
    Self-Enquiry (Atma Vichara): Practitioners are encouraged to inquire into the nature of the self, asking fundamental questions like "Who am I?" to realize their true nature.

**2. ** Bhakti Yoga:

    Devotion to a Deity: While Advaita Vedanta emphasizes the formless Brahman, followers may also engage in devotion (bhakti) to a personal deity like Lord Shiva or Vishnu.

**3. ** Karma Yoga:

    Selfless Service: Practicing actions without attachment to the results, dedicating the fruits of one's actions to a higher purpose or the divine.

**4. ** Meditation:

    Dhyana (Meditation): Practicing meditation to quiet the mind, leading to self-realization and a deeper understanding of the non-dual nature of reality.

**5. ** Sannyasa (Renunciation):

    Monastic Life: Shankara established the Dashanami Sampradaya, an order of monks with ten names, who follow a monastic way of life. Sannyasis renounce worldly attachments and dedicate themselves to spiritual pursuits.

**6. ** Chanting:

    Recitation of Scriptures: Chanting of Vedic hymns, Upanishadic verses, and other sacred texts for spiritual purification and elevation of consciousness.

**7. ** Philosophical Disputations:

    Debates and Discourses: Shankara encouraged scholarly debates and discussions to propagate Advaita Vedanta and engage with other philosophical schools.

It's important to note that these practices can vary among Shankara's followers and different monastic orders within the Advaita tradition might emphasize certain practices over others. Additionally, individuals may tailor their practices based on personal inclinations and spiritual progress.

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